Exploring the Effects of Gratifications, Narcissism, Sense...

Exploring the Effects of Gratifications, Narcissism,

Sense of Humor and Sensation-seeking on the

Sharing Humorous Selfies Online

By

WANG Chengfeng Chester

Graduation Project

Presented to the Faculty of Graduate School of

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements

for the Degree of

Master of Science

in

New Media

Supervisor:

Professor Louis Leung

School of Journalism and Communication

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

May 2016

SHARING HUMOROUS SELFIES ONLINE Page 2 of 36

Exploring the Effects of Gratifications, Narcissism,

Sense of Humor and Sensation-seeking on the

Sharing Humorous Selfies Online

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate how individual personality traits (including

narcissism, sense of humor, and sensation seeking) as well as the gratifications sought relate

to the sharing of humorous selfies online. Data were collected from 507 respondents in China.

An exploratory factor analysis yielded three dimensions of gratification uniquely sought from

the sharing of humorous selfies (i.e., entertainment and relaxation, escapism, and

attention-seeking). Regression results showed that only attention-seeking needs,

exhibitionism, attitude toward humor, and sensation seeking were significant predictors of the

level of online sharing of humorous selfies. This study reflected a special narcissism and

some unrecognized psychological factors as well as gratifications in the sharing of humorous

selfies online.

Keywords: selfie, narcissism, sense of humor, sensation seeking, uses and gratifications


Introduction

Comparing with the time when we primarily exchange words on the screens of our

computers and mobile phones for routine mediated interpersonal communication a few years

ago, it is quite common for us to share and spread photos as well as videos online nowadays.

Thanks to the advancement and popularization of smartphones, people do not content

themselves with generating textual contents such as in blogs and forums online. Instead,

producing pictures and videos of themselves and sharing them in social media has been a

viral trend. In fact, “selfie” has become so popular that it has won the honored title for

“Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013.” However, among many typical selfies which

were often taken in meticulously selected angles, some are transformed into “humorous

selfies” via various photo editing apps and subsequently feted in social networking sites

(SNS). “Humorous selfies” in this paper refer to those photos/video selfies where some

special effects and/or modules (such as moustache, doodle, photo-twisting, and quirky

adornment) were added or the original audio were dubbed with amusing sounds (taken from

movies, music, TV programs, Internet, etc.). These photos or videos are often altered through

the use of certain apps, such as Snapchat (Doodle), Dubsmash, Musical.ly, and Ugly Camera.

Some alternatives in China include Xiaokaxiu, Doupai, Tiantian P’tu, Faceu, and so on. A

succession of such apps have emerged in recent years and made people — the youths in

particular — obsessed with it, which has become a new emerging phenomenon.

Research into “selfie” has sprung up for the last few years. Such image was called

“self-portrait” in early times, which was believed to be imported from a Japanese term (Yeh,


2007), and was called “Internet self-portraiture” when the photos were posted online (Wang,

2009). Iqani and Schroeder (2015) identified a variety of selfies, including funeral selfies,

bathroom selfies, extreme selfies, “belfies”, and animated selfies (with the app Dubsmash).

Many researchers regarded selfie as a new medium for self-presentation or self-expression

(Mehdizadeh, 2010; Papacharissi, 2010; Qiu, Lu, Yang, Qu, & Zhu, 2015). Stefanoe and

Lackaff (2009) also explored the photo and video sharing as a kind of self-disclosure and

supposed that such behaviors closely mimicked the reality television (RTV). However, past

studies found that SNS users prefer to choose their profile pictures which are perceived more

physically attractive (Siibak, 2009; Strano, 2008), and this situation may be similar to selfie

sharing according to our own experiences. To a certain extent, this is supported by the finding

that body image satisfaction is associated with more Instagram selfie posting (Ridgway &

Clayton, 2016). And this is why some people even criticize this phenomenon as “a symptom

of social media-driven narcissism” (Pearlman, 2013).

Most past studies on selfies focused on the beauty of the selfies. However, the notion of

studying humorous selfies is still scarce. Humorous selfie distinguishes itself by trying to

make a display of one’s amusing look rather than an attractive one. Since people always try

to present their positive attributes to others, what are their motivations to share their

self-mocking selfies online at their own expenses? “To exhibit one’s attractiveness” and “to

gratify one’s vanity” can easily be figured out when talking about the motivation of posting

selfies. However, these may no longer be applicable in terms of humorous selfies, since there

are no attractiveness and it seems unreasonable to gratify vanity by self-mocking. So this


study aims to explore and identify some specific motives of humorous selfie sharing. On the

other hand, the related personality traits of humorous selfies use may also differ. Even if

“narcissism” would still be an important factor, it seems that there would be something

different from what we conventionally recognized in it. Concerning the contrasts between

humorous selfies and “common selfies”, it is valuable to examine if the concept of

“narcissism” could be generalized into such areas. Grounded in uses and gratifications theory,

together with personality traits (including narcissism, sense of humor, and sensation seeking),

the goal of this study is to explore the explanatory power of these factors influencing the

intensity of sharing humorous selfies online.

Literature Review

Humor types, internet humor, and Kuso

Based on a 2×2 model of humor functions (benevolent/detrimental, to-the-self/to-others),

four types of humor were identified. Among which the one with the “benevolent and

to-the-self” was named self-enhancing humor (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir,

2003). As making humorous selfies are always well-intentioned, therefore it can be classified

under “self-enhancing humor” as well. This kind of humor is commonly regarded as a

positive humor style, which “involves a generally humorous outlook on life” and an ability to

laugh at oneself, and in which individuals “maintain a humorous perspective even in the face

of stress or adversity” (Kuiper, Martin, & Olinger, 1993; Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray,

& Weir, 2003). Self-enhancing humor is also closely related to the concept of coping humor

(Martin, 1996) and emotion regulation (Lefcourt et al., 1995).


Most scholars focused on political humor in the internet. Baumgartner (2007)

investigated internet political humor and found that a video clip, which parodied President

George W. Bush unexpectedly, had a positive effect on evaluations of the President. This

may imply that such to-the-self humor could actually have positive effects on oneself. Chen

(2014) explored the Internet humor in China with the case of “Baozou manhua,” which was

an internet community where rage comics were introduced and could be generated by users.

He also pointed out that it actually “signifies a new form of expression for ordinary netizens

where they move from simply being consumers of comics to producers.” This relates to

humorous selfies since they both result from a subculture called “Kuso.” Kuso was initially

associated with a culture of computer games, referring to the parody or spoof. When

imported to Taiwan and Mainland China, this term has also been called “E’gao,” which

means “making mischief” (Silvio, 2009). Since “E’gao” concerns something humorous,

revelry, but subversion with defiance of authority (Huang, 2006), it actually achieves an

effect of emotional catharsis (Gong & Yang, 2010).

Gratifications from online humorous selfies sharing

Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory emphasized how and why people purposively

choose certain media (Klapper, 1963). It suggested how factors such as one’s

social environment and psychological circumstances, needs, motives, and expectations about

mediated communication can influence media use and its effects (Katz, Blumler, &

Gurevitch, 1974; Rosengren, 1974). Previous studies have highlighted some gratifications

sought by users from SNS- or online community-based sharing, such as information seeking,


socializing, status seeking, information sharing, and entertainment (Baek, Holton, Harp, &

Yaschur, 2011; Lampe, Wash, Velasquez, & Ozkaya, 2010; Lee & Ma, 2012). Specifically,

studies that focused on online/mobile photo sharing have found several gratifications,

including maintenance of social relationships, reminding of individual and collective

experiences, self-presentation (including humor), self-expression, task performance,

self-development, enjoyment, etc. (Chua, Lee, Goh, & Ang, 2009; Nov, Naaman, & Ye,

2009). Summarizing previous studies, Malik, Dhir, and Nieminen (2016) listed six major

motives of digital photo sharing on SNSes: affection, attention seeking, disclosure, habitual

pastime, information sharing, and social influence.

A few studies focusing on Snapchat also enlightened us the gratifications of humorous

selfies sharing. Conducted by Roesner, Gill and Kohno (2014), the study suggested that

Snapchat represented the leisure, the sharing, but most of all, the immediacy and amusement

which was far from that of Facebook and Instagram. Piwek and Joinson (2016) also

confirmed that the second most mentioned factors for using Snapchat was its funniness and

found that 59.8% of respondents reported their primary use for Snapchat was for sharing

funny contents including their “stupid faces.” David (2015) investigated the selfies shared in

Snapchat by teenagers and concluded that youths did not regard their selfies as an object for

personal data archiving, but as “fleeting ephemerality.” He also asserted that such

“self-mockery” was a healthy release. By making yourself appear silly or hilarious, you are

actually showing others that you have a humorous attitude towards yourself. When trying to

make fun of yourself, you are no longer getting stuck in deliberately showing your image of


beauty, elegance, and stylishness. Since “E’gao” has a principal effect of emotional catharsis

(Gong & Yang, 2010), it is also somehow an effective way for relaxation and stress reduction

to make your selfies in a funny way.

Those good-looking selfies are usually considered manifestations of existing normative

institutional values (Wang, 2009). In selfies, men and women are supposed to enact a role

deemed socially acceptable by his or her audiences online. However, to engage in humorous

selfies, you concern less about those values and regulations. Considering the culture of

“E’gao”, it actually relates to subversion of authority and defiance of mainstream of social

values.

One of the most significant features of “play” is “free,” without any task-driven forces

and in the sense of being different from ordinary life (Huizinga, 1955). In a more recent study,

Caillois and Barash (2001) divided “play” into four types and two play attitudes. Creating

humorous selfie photos and videos that imitates celebrities or virtual characters by adding

decorations or visual effects is something called “mimicry” according to the definition given

by Caillois, for the reason that they are temporarily believing they are in an imaginary

universe where others believe that they are someone else. Regarding the two play attitudes

proposed by Caillois, mimicry involved attempts to escape oneself, and tended towards

“paidia”, which referred to “diversion, turbulence, free improvisation, carefree gaiety and

laughter, spontaneous, impulsive, joyous, uncontrolled fantasy” (Caillois & Barash, 2001).

By mimicking others and employing various effects, they are actually making their selfies not


resemble themselves any more. Thus, they may successfully escape from the real world and

leave their tasks and stress behind.

Based on aforementioned studies, one research question and one hypothesis were

proposed:

RQ1: What are the gratifications sought by users that are uniquely associated with sharing

their humorous selfies online?

H1: Individuals who find sharing humorous selfies online gratifying will participate more in

sharing humorous selfies online.

Narcissism

Narcissism indicates to a personality trait reflecting a grandiose and inflated self-concept

marked by self-promotion, vanity, and grandiosity (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008; DeWall,

Buffardi, Bonser, & Campbell, 2011). Specifically, narcissism is associated with superiority,

a positive and inflated self-view in terms of intelligence, power, and physical attractiveness

(Brown & Zeigler-Hill, 2004; Gabriel, Critelli, & Ee, 1994; Bleske-Rechek, Remiker, &

Baker, 2008). More narcissistic individuals are more acutely concerned about their physical

appearances than less narcissistic individuals are (Vazire, Naumann, Rentfrow, & Gosling,

2008). But as narcissists also tend to overestimate their attractiveness (Gabriel, Critelli, & Ee,

1994), it is also likely for them to post some unattractive selfies, which are nevertheless been

considered attractive by themselves. Another important point is that a crucial component of

narcissism is the need to be the center of attention (DeWall, Buffardi, Bonser, & Campbell,

2011). When attention to the self is not forthcoming, narcissists may engage in compensatory


actions to direct attention toward themselves (Buss & Chiodo, 1991). This may even cause

some dispositions like exhibitionism, which relates to vanity and a willingness to attract

attention, entailing behaviors such as to flaunt money to impress someone, or to disagree

merely for the sake of attention (Buss & Chiodo, 1991; Murray, 1938). Also, social

exhibitionism was found to be correlated positively with online selfie-sharing behavior

(Sorokowska et al., 2016). Sharing humorous selfies with some eye-catching effects or

amusing scripts is definitely an effective way of drawing attention from others, thus

narcissists will have less concerns and expect to grab attention by doing so.

H2: Individuals who are more narcissistic will participate more in sharing humorous selfies

online.

Sense of humor

“Sense of humor” refers to humor as a stable personality trait or a temperament (Ruch, 1998;

Ruch & Carrell, 1998). Individuals with a good sense of humor are perceived as friendly,

interesting, pleasant, intelligent, emotionally stable, and creative (Cann & Calhoun, 2001;

Kaufman, Kozbelt, Bromley, Geher, & Miller, 2007; O’Quin & Derks, 1997). Individuals

with a greater sense of humor possess some other desirable traits, such as greater optimism,

self-acceptance, self-confidence, and autonomy (Kuiper & Martin, 1998). This may help

them well accept their own imperfections and be confident in themselves. There is also a

positive correlation with sense of humor and exhibition (Thorson & Powell, 1993), which

also motivates them to present themselves to public. Svebak (2010) conceptualized sense of

humor as a 2-dimensional concept including meta-message sensitivity (which means one’s


sensitivity to humorous contents and ability to capture tiny humorous-intentioned

meta-messages or hints like blinking) and attitude towards humor (also called liking of

attitude towards humorous people and situations). For humorous characters, some might

welcome them but others may think about making jokes all day are irresponsible and

unreliable. Both of these are essential factors when considering them in the context of

generating humorous selfies as well as the willingness to share them.

H3: Individuals with (a) greater sense of humorous meta-message sensitivity and (b) more

positive attitude towards humor will participate more in sharing humorous selfies online.

Sensation seeking

According to the definition made by Zuckerman (1979, p. 10; 1994), sensation seeking is a

biologically based personality trait that describes individuals' characteristic preferences for

and willingness to search for novel, varied, and intense stimuli. A number of studies revealed

that high sensation seekers tend to select media content that is stimulating and arousing and

avoid content that is placid and boring (Edwards, 1991; Hirschman, 1987; Nater, Krebs, &

Ehlert, 2005; Perse, 1996). In an experimental condition, Schierman and Rowland (1985)

found that high sensation seekers spent more time watching comedy movies. There are four

dimensions of the sensation seeking trait: thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking,

disinhibition seeking, and boredom susceptibility. Experience seeking represents stimulation

achieved through some unconventional life styles like art, travel, and music, while boredom

susceptibility refers to aversion to boredom and agitation caused by the lack of stimulation

from activities or other people (Deckers & Ruch, 1992). Both of these two dimensions were


considered to be predictors of appreciation of humor structure since the former relates to the

novelty and complexity dimension of stimuli (Zuckerman, 1984) and the latter represents

avoidance of repetitious experience (Deckers & Ruch, 1992). For high sensation seekers, they

are inclined to experiment with some newfangled mobile apps to get rid of dull life,

especially that are entertaining and somewhat irregular. Although no evidence suggests the

clear relationships of humorous selfie use and “thrill and adventure seeking” as well as

“disinhibition seeking”, the positive relations could be legitimately inferred. To take

humorous selfies makes us see a different image of ourselves, which may make us thrilled; to

post them may cause some uncertain responses (the comments can be positive or negative),

which may be regarded as something adventurous. If the stereotyped beautiful selfies are

recognized as an inhibition, humorous selfies which can freely display one’s appearance can

sure be recognized as a disinhibition.

H4: Individuals with higher sensation seeking will participate more in sharing humorous

selfies online.

Based on the review of literature above, this exploratory study seeks to examine the

comprehensive picture by addressing one broad research question:

RQ2: To what extent can the control variables, gratifications-sought, narcissism, sense of

humor, and sensation seeking predict sharing of humorous selfies online?

Method

Sample


Data for this exploratory research were gathered using a snowball sampling approach. The

acquaintances who are humorous selfie users were invited to complete the questionnaire via a

hyperlink of the online questionnaire posted on sojump.com in April 2016. Respondents were

asked to invite other humorous selfie users from their social networks to complete the

questionnaire. “Humorous selfie users” refer to those who have both made and shared their

selfies which are considered to be humorous, amusing, or comic by themselves, in the forms

of photo or video, either with or without employing specific editing applications before

sharing. The requirement above was conveyed and explained to each respondent in advance.

The final sample of participants (N = 507) in the survey consisted of 55.6% male and the

median age was 18-23. A project called “Selfiecity,” conducted by City University of New

York in 2014, collected over 120,000 selfies from five cities across the world (Selfiecity,

2014). The sample demographics of this study (see Table 1) bear a relatively good

demographic resemblance to that of these five cities, in particular Bangkok (the other four

cities were New York, Sao Paolo, Berlin, and Moscow).

(*Insert Table 1 about here*)

Measures

Gratifications-sought. Some relevant gratification items used in previous research into

online sharing or online humor-related contents such as sharing news (Lee & Ma, 2012),

sharing links (Baek, Holton, Harp, & Yaschur, 2011), sharing digital photos (Malik, Dhir, &

Nieminen, 2016), co-viewing with YouTube (Haridakis & Hanson, 2009) were included in

the survey questionnaire. The wordings for some items were rephrased in order to suit the


situation of humorous selfie use. The final questionnaire consisted of 15 gratification

statements and a five-point Likert scale was used (1 = “strongly disagree” and 5 = “strongly

agree”).

Narcissism. The NPI-16 (Ames, Rose, & Anderson, 2006), drawing its items from NPI-40

(Raskin & Terry, 1988), was used to measure narcissism in this study. The revised Chinese

version of Narcissism Personality Questionnaire was developed by Zhou, Zhang, Chen, and

Ye (2009) based on Chinese culture, and shows a good reliability within Chinese students. A

total of 12 items were chosen from the original inventory in order to make the questionnaire

more manageable. A five-point Likert scale was used (1 = “strongly disagree” and 5 =

“strongly agree”). Table 2 shows the factor analysis of 12 items of narcissism. The three

dimensions, authority (M = 2.72, SD = .89, α = .85), superiority (M = 3.07, SD = .83, α

= .85), and exhibitionism (M = 3.09, SD = .89, α = .82) show a good reliability.


Sense of humor. The Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ; Svebeck, 1974) has been a

commonly used way of assessing sense of humor as a personality trait. Later, a revised

version, SHQ-6, including 6 items of SHQ, was developed by Svebeck (2010). SHQ-6

contains 3 items for “meta-message sensitivity” (M = 3.35, SD = .83, α = .72) and 3 items of

for “attitude towards humor” (M = 3.62, SD = .93, α = .86) in SHQ. “Meta-message

sensitivity” contained statement such as “I can easily capture tiny humorous-intentioned hints

like blinking” and “attitude towards humor” contained statement such as “those who think


about making jokes all day are irresponsible and unreliable” (converse statement). The items

were measured in a five-point Likert scale (1 = “strongly disagree” and 5 = “strongly agree”).

Sensation seeking. Form V of the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS-V; Zuckerman, Eysenck, &

Eysenck, 1978) is a typical way of measuring the sensation seeking construct. However, to

shorten this 40-item scale, an 8-item scale called Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS;

Hoyle, Stephenson, Palmgreen, Lorch, & Donohew, 2002) was adopted in this study. A

five-point Likert scale was also used (1 = “strongly disagree” and 5 = “strongly agree”; M =

2.96, SD = .78, α = .81). Sample items included “I would like to explore strange places” and

“I get restless when I spend too much time at home.”

Intensity of Use. Five statements regarding the intensity of humorous selfie use were

developed, including “I frequently make humorous selfie photos or videos”, “I frequently

share my humorous selfie photos or videos to my SNS”, “I spend much time making my

humorous selfies”, “I always try every effect/material/decoration in the humorous

selfie-making applications”, and “I ask for my parents’ or friends’ assistance to make my

humorous selfies more interesting”. Also, a five-point Likert scale was used (1 = “Never” and

5 = “Very often;” M = 2.29, SD = 1.03, α = .91).

Control variables. The demographics and control variables including gender, age, and daily

time spent on social media (1 = “less than 1h”, 2 = “1~2h”, 3 = “2~3h”, 4 = “3~4h”, 5 =

“4~5h”, 6 = “more than 5h”) were also recorded.

Findings

Gratifications-Sought in sharing of humorous selfies online


A factor analysis of gratification items in sharing of humorous selfies online yielded three

factors: entertainment and relaxation, escapism, and attention-seeking (see Table 3). The first

factor, entertainment and relaxation needs, accounted for 44.5% of the variance after rotation,

and consisted of six statements which illustrated respondents share humorous selfies because

it is entertaining and relaxing (M = 3.47, SD = .90, α = .91). The second factor, escapism

needs, accounted for 14.8% of variance after rotation, consisting of four statements that

described sharing humorous selfies as a tool for escaping from the real world and

responsibility (M = 2.78, SD = .93, α = .81). The third factor called attention-seeking needs

explained 9.0% of variance after rotation. It consisted of four statements that portrayed

sharing humorous selfies as an instrument for grabbing attention (M = 3.02, SD = .96, α

= .86). Among all three factors, “entertainment and relaxation needs” was the most salient

factor due to the highest mean score, followed by “attention-seeking needs”, while the

“escapism needs” was a less salient gratifications users sought from sharing humorous selfies

online.


Hypotheses testing

The first hypothesis investigated the relationship between gratifications and intensity of

humorous selfies use. Table 4 shows the correlations of all variables and intensity of sharing

humorous selfies online. Entertainment and relaxation (r = .31, p <= .001), escapism (r = .31,

p <= .001), and attention-seeking (r = .45, p <= .001) positively correlated to intensity of

sharing humorous selfies. However, after controlling for demographics, regression results in


Table 5 show that only escapism (β = .13, p <= .01) and attention-seeking (β = .34, p <= .001)

were significantly linked to intensity of selfies sharing online. So individuals who find it

more gratifying only in attention-seeking and escapism tend to participate more in sharing

humorous selfies online. Thus, H1 was largely supported.

(*Insert Tables 4 and 5 about here*)

H2 proposed that individuals who are more narcissistic will participate more in sharing

humorous selfies online. The correlation results in Table 4 narcissism (composite) was found

positively correlated with sharing humorous selfies online (r = .32, p <= .001). Furthermore,

all three dimensions of narcissism (authority, superiority, and exhibitionism) showed strong

and positive correlations with sharing humorous selfies (r = .26, p <= .001; r = .25, p <= .001;

and r = .32, p <= .001 respectively). However, after controlling for demographics and

gratifications-sought, regression results in Table 5 show that only exhibitionism was

significantly related to selfie sharing intensity (β = .11, p <= .05). Thus, H2 was only partially

supported.

H3 hypothesized that individuals with (a) greater sense of humorous meta-message

sensitivity and (b) more positive attitude towards humor will participate more in sharing

humorous selfies online. Results in Table 4 show that both meta-message sensitivity and

attitude towards humor significantly and positively correlated with sharing humorous selfies

online (r = .24, p <= .001 and r = .30, p <= .001 respectively). However, only attitude

towards humor (ß = .19; p <= .001) was a significant predictor in the final regression model.

Thus, H3a was rejected and H3b was supported.


As for sensation seeking, H4 predicted that individuals with higher sensation seeking

will participate more in sharing humorous selfies online. Table 4 also shows a strong and

positive correlation between sensation seeking and sharing humorous selfies online (r = .33, p

<= .001). However, regression results in Table 5 reveal that sensation seeking (ß = .07; p

<= .05) also significantly linked to intensity of selfie sharing online. Thus, H4 was fully

supported.

Predictors of sharing humorous selfies online

The second research question aimed to develop a more comprehensive model predicting the

use intensity of sharing humorous selfies online. Table 5 shows the results from the

hierarchical regression analysis. The first model only included demographics and control

variables, with a relatively low R2 (Final adjusted R

2 = .01). It seems that males are more

likely to share their humorous selfies (β = .11, p <= .05). One possible explanation may be

that males are more technologically competent in editing software to make humorous selfies.

In Model 2, gratifications-sought were also taken into consideration other than control

variables, and R2 showed a significant change (Final adjusted R

2 = .21, ΔR

2 = .20, p <= .001).

Gender was no longer a significant predictor (β = .05, p > .05), whereas escapism and

attention-seeking became two significant impact factors (β = .13, p <= .01; β = .34, p

<= .001). A more comprehensive model was developed in Model 3 consisting of control

variables, gratifications-sought, and personalities altogether, and it was examined to be the

best one to predict sharing humorous selfies online (Final adjusted R2 = .27, ΔR

2 = .07, p

<= .001). Escapism failed to predict sharing humorous selfies (β = .07, p > .05), while


attention-seeking could still positively predict it (β = .26, p <= .001). Among all the

personalities, attitude towards humor was the strongest predictor (β = .19, p <= .001),

followed by exhibitionism (β = .11, p <= .05) and sensation seeking (β = .11, p <= .05). All

other variables showed no relationship with use intensity of sharing humorous selfies online.

Discussion

People share their humorous selfies in order to get entertainment, escape, and attention.

Humorous selfie can not only act as amusement and getaway, but also make you an

eye-catcher. It is palpable that people use humorous selfies because it is entertaining and

makes them joyful and stress-free. The escapism needs reflect their motives of mentally

escaping from reality by playing with humorous selfies. This also reinforces the theory of

“play” proposed by Caillois and Barash (2001), supposing that play contributes to develop a

sense of being different and separate from everyday life and “mimicry” involves attempts to

escape oneself. To produce a humorous selfie, you may decorate yourself with mustache,

enlarge your face, or dub yourself into some interesting voices, which is actually making

your selfies look different from yourself. That is how you escape from yourself and briefly

imagine a fantasy world for you. This also suggests that such diversion is beneficial for us to

get a relief and not to focus on the distress all day.

Besides, people use humorous selfies to draw attention from others. Since

attention-seeking can most significantly predict the use intensity of humorous selfies, this

may suggest that those who share humorous selfies regard such selfies as something different

and offbeat compared with those beautiful selfies of the same pattern. It is the alternativeness


or nonconformity that they value the most, instead of other qualities. So, probably they will

not use it once humorous selfies become too common.

As mentioned in the research objectives, unlike those who love to share good-looking

selfies to present their positive attributes such as beauty and shapeliness, can sharing

humorous selfies, which are sometimes unattractive, still be related to narcissism? Based on

the results of the present study, the answer is yes: those humorous selfie users are still

narcissistic persons. According to the findings, when all variables were taken into

consideration in the regression analysis, only exhibitionism was significant among all three

narcissism dimensions. However, it is also interesting to note that superiority was

approaching significance with a negative beta value (β = -.10; p <= .1). This suggests that

heavy humorous selfie users are people who have strong desires to show off, but feel inferior

to others. So making humorous selfies becomes a good choice for them to exhibit themselves

while not revealing their weakness. Therefore, we may conclude that humorous selfie users

are generally narcissists with a score high in exhibitionism but may also be low in superiority.

In fact, when looking at a humorous selfie, people won’t take much notice if the person in the

selfie is good-looking. So they show off, get attention, and hide their self-perceived weakness.

Furthermore, it seems that such narcissism with low in authority and superiority is uniquely

associated with sharing humorous selfies, whereas all the dimensions of narcissism were

found to be positively correlated with selfie-posting frequency in previous studies

(Sorokowski et al, 2015; Weiser, 2015). Since exhibitionism was related to being the center


of others’ attention (Carpenter, 2012), this also sustains the attention-seeking needs

mentioned above.

As for sense of humor, attitude towards humor can positively predict humorous selfies

sharing online, while meta-message sensitivity cannot. It seems that to make humorous

selfies doesn’t require a great sense of sensitivity to humor, because most people use some

applications to produce humorous selfies, while the materials as well as the effects are preset.

So all they need to do is to simply try every material and see if it is funny, which actually

lowers the barriers to use. However, it is nevertheless necessary for those who share

humorous selfies to hold a positive attitude towards humor. So in this case, the attitude counts,

rather than the ability.

High sensation seekers participate more in sharing their humorous selfies. This is also

reasonable because playing humorous selfies can effectively help them get rid of boredom

and their dull life. High sensation seekers would love to make humorous selfies in order to

seek for some novel experiences, but they may also get tired of this after the novelty effect

diminishes. To keep these users requires frequent surprises to make them always feel fresh

and different, which is quite challenging and demanding. Thus, one practical implication of

this study may be that photo editing apps have to be constantly updated with sophisticated

effects if humorous selfies are to maintain interesting for demanding users.

Conclusion

This exploratory study is the first research focusing on humorous selfies that presents a

different aspect of “selfie”. Based on the results above, it seems that the results of previous


studies on general selfies cannot be generalized. The contrasts between humorous selfies and

general selfies are not only visual and external, but also demonstrated to reflect some

psychological differences. This may also inspire us that users intentionally choose the certain

medium, and more importantly, intentionally choose how to use the medium to gratify

themselves in diverse ways. Another theoretical contribution of this study is that the

personality trait can be divided into several sub-concepts which can be analyzed respectively.

All the concepts of personality traits are composite to some extent. So it is also worth

exploring within a certain personality trait to get some valuable insight. Concerning this

study, as mentioned in discussion section, although narcissism has always been the main

concern regarding selfies, there are some differences and unrecognized psychological factors

when talking about a specific kind of selfie.

For practitioners, it is important to understand users’ real minds and needs. As the most

relevant personality traits of sharing humorous selfies are healthy attitude towards humor,

exhibitionism, and sensation seeking, humorous-selfie-making apps can target their products

at those optimists, jokers, buffoons, exhibitionists, high sensation seekers, adventurers, and so

on. And since sensation seeking is the most important predictor, those

humorous-selfie-making products need to provide more absurd and uncommon effects to

make users’ selfies more eye-catching. Some exclusive functions or stickers could only be

available to those active users or VIPs; this may arouse their enthusiasm due to their strong

desire of being exclusive. Besides, a user community could be developed where they can post

their works of humorous selfies, make comments, and click to like others’ works. The


interactions in the community would make them feel that they have caused a sensation, and

they thus feel gratifying.

Some limitations of this study as well as recommendations for future study should also

be pointed out. The first is a methodological limitation: Due to the non-probability sampling

method used, the sample of this study can be biased. And in order to get a deeper

understanding, more dimensions of narcissism should be considered and included in the

questionnaire. For future research, more gratifications can be developed by conducting a

focus group and more control variables can be taken into consideration to lead a more

comprehensive study.


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Table 1: Sample demographics (N = 507)

Measure Item Frequency Percentage (%)

Gender Male 225 55.6

Female 282 44.4

Age (years) 17 and below 11 2.2

18~23 321 63.3

24~29 147 29.0

30~35 19 3.7

36 and above 9 1.8


Table 2: Factor analysis of narcissism (N = 507)

Factors Mean SD

1 2 3

Authority:

`

1. I find it easy to manipulate others. .80

2.57 1.05

2. My authority is recognized by others. .75

2.66 .98

3. The world would get better under my rule. .73

2.63 1.17

4. I like to be a leader. .72

3.02 1.08

Superiority:

5. I have a greater taste than others.

.82

3.08 1.00

6. I am more capable than others.

.75

3.14 1.00

7. People can learn a lot from me.

.72

3.11 .98

8. I can always let others believe me.

.64

2.93 1.00

Exhibitionism:

9. I like to look in the mirror.

.76 3.14 1.09

10. I will not get satisfied until get what I desire for.

.75 3.23 1.14

11. I like to be the focus.

.75 2.94 1.13

12. I like to present myself once having chances.

.73 3.06 1.08

Eigenvalue 6.05 1.40 .84

Variance explained 50.45 11.63 6.96

Cronbach’s alpha .85 .85 .82

Only factor loadings greater than .50 were reported.


Table 3: Gratifications-sought of sharing humorous selfies online (N = 507)

I generate and share my humorous selfies online: Factors

Mean SD 1 2 3

Entertainment and relaxation needs

3.47 .90

1. To make me feel happy .85

3.57 1.05

2. To relieve my pressure .84

3.54 1.08

3. To relax myself .82

3.59 1.03

4. To make me laugh .77

3.35 1.13

5. Because it is funny .77

3.54 1.11

6. Because it is enjoying .67

3.24 1.14

Escapism needs

2.78 .93

7. To forget things related to my study or work

.82

2.73 1.19

8. When I have nothing else to do

.79

2.67 1.18

9. To kill the time

.74

3.01 1.06

10. To escape from what I am doing now

.70

2.74 1.16

Attention-seeking needs

3.02 .96

11. To draw others’ attention in social networks

.80 2.98 1.18

12. To make me distinctive

.78 2.90 1.14

13. To leave a deeper impression to others

.74 3.07 1.13

14. To present a different aspect of myself

.62 3.11 1.14

Eigenvalue 6.22 2.07 1.26

Variance explained 44.45 14.76 8.96

Cronbach’s alpha .91 .81 .86

Only factor loadings greater than .50 were reported.


Table 4: Correlations between demographics, gratifications-sought, and personalities

and intensity of sharing humorous selfies online (N = 507)

Independent Variables

Intensity of sharing

humorous selfies online

r

Demographics & control variables

Gender (Male=1) .11*

Age group .03

Daily exposure to social media .07

Gratifications-sought

Entertainment and relaxation .31***

Escapism .31***

Attention-seeking .45***

Personality traits

Narcissism (composite) .32***

Authority .26***

Superiority .25***

Exhibitionism .32***

Sense of humor

Meta-message sensitivity .24***

Attitude towards humor .30***

Sensation seeking .33***

Figures reported are Pearson’s r.

*p < = .05; **p < = .01; ***p < = .001


Table 5: Hierarchical regression of control variables, gratifications-sought, and personalities traits predicting intensity of sharing

humorous selfies online (N=507)

Predictors Intensity of sharing humorous selfies online

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Block 1: Control variables

Gender (Male=1) .11* .05 .05

Age group .02 –.01 –.04

Daily exposure to social media .08 .01 –.02

Block 2: Gratifications-sought

Entertainment and relaxation

.06 .06

Escapism

.13** .07

Attention-seeking

.34*** .26***

Block 3: Personalities

Authority

.04

Superiority

–.10

Exhibitionism

.11*

Meta-message sensitivity

.04

Attitude towards humor

.19***

Sensation seeking

.11*

ΔR2 .02 .20*** .07***

R2 .02 .22 .29

Final adjusted R2 .01 .21 .27

Figures reported are standardized beta-coefficients of Linear Regression.

*p < = .05; **p < = .01; ***p < = .001

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